I can't believe an avalanche of "Yea, but you have to appoint former industry bigwigs as regulators because they're the only ones who really understand industry" replies haven't shown up yet.

It appears the lobbyist apologists are slipping here on slashdot...

How your post was modded insightful is anybodies guess, and I think the answer lies in what you say, about the "mental capacity of neanderthals".

To begin with, did you RTFA?
It doesn't appear that you did.

The surprising findings from the research was that the arctic sea ice is a collector of sorts for the unfathomably large amount of plastic spewed into the oceans by man and his industrial offal. The amount of plastic found was "three orders of magnitude larger than some counts of plastic particles in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch" Maybe that isn't interesting enough for you, but it is for me.

Also from the article:
"Plastic is chemically inert. But the plastic can absorb organic pollutants in high concentrations, says Mark Browne, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Browne has performed laboratory experiments with marine organisms showing not only how the microplastics can be retained in tissues, but also how pollutants might be released upon ingestion. "

If any sort of +5 outrage should be generated by the research and its findings, its from the fact that mankind has and is continuing to pollute and degrade it's own biosphere.

Hello? Anybody in there?

"Thinly veiled reference to global warming"?
Wake up yo.

This is why there is a fight right now about the proposed pipeline from The Basin to Salt Lake to transport the waxy crude.

The pipeline has to be heated to keep the "oil" from congealing:
"Uinta’s black wax crude must remain above 95 degrees and yellow wax above 115 degrees or it’s liable to congeal."

The proposed pipeline would cross several of the watersheds where those that live along the Wasatch Front get their drinking water.

So the question is, what is more important, a stable supply of drinking water, or the ability of a small minority to make even more money from refining waxy crude?

It's interesting to read the back and forth arguments anytime fossil fuels are discussed.

For some reason people, especially those benefitting from the carbon extraction industry, often take a very black and white view of the situation. Their view is usually that renewables are a waste of time, and that only our carbon based energy paradigm is practicable.

The reality is that the rest of the "First World" is moving ahead rapidly with renewable energy.

Whether it is China, Germany or Brazil the leadership in these other countries are taking the steps necessary to insulate themselves from the dependence on carbon based energy(fossil fuels). They are doing what is known in investing as "diversifying".

Right... I know you've heard this before...

Sure, we still need oil and gas. Of course we do. Oil should be used for plastics, etc. Gas for heating, energy, transportation, etc; But it seems to me this whole fracking boom that is going on is just another way to slow the adoption of renewable energy.

But what the US should be doing is throwing itself fully into renewable energy.

What are we waiting for, a "Sign from God"?
That sign from God may not be a pleasant one.

Forget Solar, forget Wind. There is vast Geothermal energy potential in the western US. Now, go ahead and remember Solar, because there is vast solar potential in the southewestern US, via Solar Thermal. Why aren't we moving full speed ahead on this? Wind energy? Sure, the plains, all the way from Montana to Texas have loads of potential?

The US could be a leader in renewable energy.
Obama said as much during his 2008 campaign, yet I haven't seen this switch to renewables.
America, it's time to wake the F up.

I had to install CrapBlock on my toilet...

To me, when I read things like this, I think about what this really says about our society and the current state of our civilization.

Sure, I guess you could find some advertising going back to the stone age, but really, advertising didn't become the monstrosity it is until the last 60 years or so. And in the last 15, via the internet, it has just exploded.

Ads, ads everywhere and not a thought to think

The pedaling of goods and services, the saturation of commerce and advertising, however you want to analyze this, it is wrong, and it's not what the intelligence and creativity of the human race was meant for.

Looking back on this time, historians and others will cringe...

I think you need to stick to flavored wine coolers and leave the thinking to people who know history.
Obviously with a statement like that you don't.

All that it means is what we've known for the last twenty years or so.
It doesn't matter who is president or who is in congress.
The real power is controlled by the lobbyists for those with the most money and power.
The charade of representative democracy is wearing quite thin indeed.
Republican or Democrat, they both kowtow to the 1% and their aims.

Actually it's St. Reagan

No, Obama isn't Reagan, but Obama isn't even close to being a liberal. The last real liberal president the US had was Carter.

The undercover fomenters in Kiev were Space-X agents!

A sales guy from upstart home security company knocked at my door a while back.
I was in the middle of dinner...
He wanted to sell me on all the cool new features that a smart home can provide, such as what you describe above.

I told him no thanks, and he wanted to know why.

I told him I've been working in IT for quite a while and I understand all the security risks inherent with such systems, and I don't want to have to worry about all the extra crap I have to secure in my house, besides the usual things I have(servers, pc's, WAP's, routers, etc;). He said something like, "well...(smirk) I can see you wouldn't be a good fit for us."

or isn't it always good practice to disable the public community string as well as creating an egress filter to block all outgoing snmp?

Yea, I've noticed that since 9/11. I'm sure the DOHS has input and influence over any script for any film or tv program dealing with "national security". It was like that when Hoover was around.
It's like the 1950's with the threat of Communism around every corner, and how film and television pushed that fear on the American public.

If you question anything, or want to get the real reason decisions are made, then you're a bad guy.

Rational thought and deductive reasoning aren't taught in school, and now we see the consequences, where the younger generations coming up simply tune out all this talk of privacy. They don't have a problem with the NSA, or anyone else, monitoring their every thought, word and deed.
The ultimate irony will be when Orwells 1984 isn't banned, it just won't be read or studied because his vision has come true.

Brilliant!